In many urban centres, easily developable land is becoming increasingly difficult to secure driving a trend for cities and developers to consider building over rail corridors. In Toronto, there is a bold new proposal to build a landmark 21-acre public park over an existing and active rail corridor in the heart of downtown. In Calgary, a striking new central library is being built over an active LRT line in order to take advantage of a great location. And in New York, the largest private real estate development is underway in west Manhattan which involves building platforms over large areas of active rail lines.

“Land is more scarce. Less opportunities for developable land so in some ways building over the tracks is a way to create land where none exists in the city.”
– Michael Meschino, Entuitive

This type of development is already happening and we’ll see more of it. Michael Meschino, Head of Entuitive’s Transportation team, was the guest for the Metropolis: A Livable Cities Podcast where they had a lively discussion on building over rail, the proposed Rail Deck Park in Toronto, the technical and economic challenges associated with this type of development, air rights and how building over or next to transit infrastructure can make cities a better place to live. You can listen to the podcast below.

If you have difficulty listening to the podcast through the embedded audio above, click here to go directly to the podcast website.